First part here.

Stark correctly assesses that much of the ‘Enlightenment’ is anti-Catholic propaganda issued in the main, by Protestant authors, anti-Papists, and those opposed for various, reasons to the Catholic Church including many such as Voltaire who viewed themselves as godly (the chapel on his estate was inscribed to his own glory).  The fact that none of the criticasters built, made or did much of anything of value seems to have been missed by modern day apologia.  Tonnes (literally in weight) of documents can attest to the profound progress endemic in Medieval Europe, notwithstanding the onslaught of pagan Muhammadans, Avars, Magyars and Vikings who linked up with the Muslims in the White Slave trade.  Rest assured, pace the ‘progressive’ and ‘scientific’ culture of today, Muslims have no need to bend knees to Whites.  Indeed, you can’t find an academic or ‘expert’ book or article criticising any aspect of the Muhammadan cult.  Plenty are issued each year declaiming in the shrillest possible decibels against Medieval (and White) history.  That should tell the observer plenty (but usually doesn’t).

Antidotes to the dreary and ignorant pro-Muslim, anti-Catholic bias can be found in March Bloch, Francis and Joseph Gies, Jean Gimpel, and Lynn Townsend White Jr., all used by Stark as sources.  Must reads must also include Ferdinand Braudel, and Henri Pirenne. 

Stark relates some wonderful milestones in the Medieval era, just a tithe of what could be mentioned:

-The Domesday Book of 1086 reported that there were 5,624 water powered mills, or 1 per 50 people in England, which is a vast understatement.  When the Romans left circa 410 AD there were none.

-Woollen cloths manufacturing was enabled on an industrial scale due to these water mills, allowing the English to be the European leaders in wool production.

-Dams were abundant during the Medieval period, many of them still standing.  One built at Toulouse was more than 1300 feet in width, much larger than any bridge built by the Romans in Europe.

-Windmills unknown to the Romans, became common.  Manufacturing of wood products, grain grinding, woollen materials and textiles was rife, as well as reclaiming marsh and lands close to the sea.  Huge portions of Belgium and Holland were reclaimed using literally tens of thousands of devoted windmills.  As Stark relates the density of windmills was so legion that lawsuits in the 12^th century became numerous citing the blocking of wind from competing windmills, spawning a new industry of lawyers.

-Three field agricultural rotation was perfected.  Again, unknown to the Romans or Muslims.  This renewal of land resulted in greater food production, an increase in population and even economic wealth.

-Introduction of the heavy plough, allowed the development of farming in the heavier, thicker soils of northern Europe. 

-Introduction of the horse collar and the breeding of draught horses for farming who were more efficient than oxen and ate less, thereby costing less and allowing for more profits to be made and reinvested in agriculture.

-Chimneys were invented and immensely important allowing homes and businesses to be heated and the roofs to be closed improving health and safety. 

-Eyeglasses were manufactured en-masse no later than the 13^th century in Italy raising the productivity of those with poor eyesight.

-Horses capable of carrying heavy calvary were bred, forever changing warfare, using the innovative bridle and stirrups, with a proper saddle. 

-Sailing ships and all the complicated technology associated with sea and ocean-going vessels from the Viking longship to the history-changing use of wind power seen in the caravel and 3 masted sloops.  Romans and Muslims relied on slave-powered galleys not technology.

-Ending of slavery.  Roman, Muslim, Ameri-Indian, Chinese and other societies were slave based.  This is one reason for the lack of innovation and technological progress.  Roman society was stagnant long before Christ.  By the 9^th century, Christian Europe had ended slavery.  Charlemagne’s long wars against the Saxons for instance, ended the Saxon slave trading of whites, Christians and the enslavement of Saxon natives. 

-Polyphonic music was invented at least by the 8^th century.  Violins, string instruments, wind instruments, the piano, the massive cathedral organs and musical notation were all invented in the medieval era, developed by the 13^th century.  Nothing comparable existed in Rome or the Muhammadan states.

-Art was transformed including 3-D painting on stretched canvasses, using an array of oils and paints, with a wide range of experimental designs and colours.  Nothing in the ancient or Muslim empires can even be compared to Medieval art, which for the first time, depicted not only Biblical scenes, but real life, aspirations, emotions, and movements.

-Architecture was vastly superior to anything seen in the past.  Huge Cathedrals were built between the 11^th and 13^th centuries all over Europe, denoting a culture that was wealthy, skilled, innovative and well-organised.  Arches, flying buttresses, towers, mortar, new techniques and designs proliferated forever changing how buildings were constructed.  Stained glass allowed in light and windows became common features improving general health and homeliness.

-Literature poured forth in the Medieval era leading to the creation of European vernacular languages.  Each nation produced its own body of vernacular writers and works which shaped national psyches. 

-Universities and public schools were invented in Medieval Europe.  By the 12^th century these proliferated across the Continent, supported and funded by the Church and the State.  By the early 13^th century Paris, Oxford and Bologna would have 1500 students or more, with each University beginning to specialise in different areas from medicine to theology and naturalism.  Most villages had a Church funded public school for the young with free education given from the ages of 5 to 13. 

-Science flourished including optics, mathematics, biology, human anatomy, astronomy, geo-centricity, physics and chemistry based on the failed pagan practices of alchemy.  The scientific revolution is best situated in the 12^th to 17^th centuries, animated by Christians.  The Enlightenment after all produced abiogenesis, a biologically and scientifically impossible theory.

The animus against Medievalism and the Catholic Church is one of bigotry and ignorance.  As Stark summarises, ‘It has been conventional to date the Age of Reason as having begun in the seventeenth century.  In truth, it really began in the second century, launched by early Christian theologians.  Sometimes described as ‘the science of faith’, theology consists of formal reasoning about God.  The emphasis is on discovering God’s nature, intentions and demands and on understanding how these define the relationship between human beings and God.’

There has never been a conflict between reason and faith.  That is anti-Catholic propaganda.  Christians invented modern science, logic, reasoning, math and much else.  Believing anti-Christian and anti-Catholic propaganda by those wedded to their own religions be it the ‘Enlightenment’, Darwinism, Covid, Scientism, or the various hues of Rational-Humanism, is unlikely to lead one to truth, understanding and a will to fight to preserve civilisation.  Debase your heritage and lose your future.